System is really slow; tried Ad-aware, Avast, Counterspy...

[BBCMember]

The system that I am working on is really slow, slow to boot up, slow to run, typical symptoms of spyware/malware/viruses. I have tried scanning with AVAST (latest updates) and it found nothing, Counterspy found 44 files that were remnants of weather bug, but that was it (removed them). Ad-aware found a dialer, which was removed. The system still running very slow.

Ran a scan of the hard drive with Seatools and it passed.

What do you guys suggest? The person does not want to do a format and reinstall of the OS, as he has programs on there that he lost the disks to.

System restore?

[Rocketmech]

How much ram is available and hard space is free ? Have you cleaned up temps and defrag'd ? Have you disabled unneeded startup programs and services ? Did you scan and clean in safe mode ?

[BBCMember]

512MB RAM
Have not cleaned up temp files yet
Where do you usually disable startup programs? (Systray, msconfig, Startup folder) Anywhere else?
Yes, I scanned and cleaned in safe mode with counterspy. Not with Ad-aware, however, but it usually asks to scan again after reboot if it finds stuff that's running.

I'm performing a chkdsk /r right now. 25 percent complete in stage 5

Running XP, btw.

[BBCMember]

In msconfig, if there is nothing under Command for something, should I uncheck it?

To answer one of your questions above, it has 77GB of free space.

[jon46y]

Hello, I have found that a program called A-Squared does a much better job finding malware than Spybot, adaware, Windows defender, and even AVG anti-malware. You can download a free version from here http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/. They also have a security suite that you can use with all features enabled. You can use it for 30 days. It has a program called hijack free with the suite version. But the free version has saved my but on more than one occation. Goodluck, John...

[BBCMember]

Thanks, John. I'll give it a shot.

[BBCMember]

Hey John, will it run in safe mode? Is that suggested?

[BBCMember]

I started the scan with the A-SQUARED suite in Windows because you had to sign up for an account and update it in Windows, and then it just lead you to scanning your computer.

I did the deep scan, and it is taking a while (as expected with a deep scan). However, I am not sure if it is taking extra long on account of state Windows is in. It has already done the Trace scans, and is working on the file scans. Can I just stop it, restart in Safe Mode, open A-squared and select it to start scanning the files and skip the trace scan?

Also, if I were to stop it now, would I be able to remove what it has found so far or would it cancel it out?

[BBCMember]

Here are the current startup items:

no name
HPBootOp
Isburnwatcher
HPwuSchd2
AirGCFG
WZCSLDR2
realsched
qttask
Acrotray
noname
pptd40nt
IndexSearch
INSTAN~1
REGIST~1
jusched
ashDisp
SBCSTray
ISUSPM
Google ToolbarNotifier
ctfmon
Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher
Adobe Reader Speed Launch
Compaq Connections

All of them are checked? Do any of them raise any red flags or can I do without any of them? Please only mention the ones you are sure of.

[rmanet]

no name - not good
HPBootOp - is this HP/Compaq machine?
Isburnwatcher - cd burner software?
HPwuSchd2 - built in HP updates maybe?
AirGCFG - wirelesstool?
WZCSLDR2 - no clue
realsched - realplayer update
qttask -quickktime - ok
Acrotray - acrobat reader - okay
noname - no good
pptd40nt - no clue
IndexSearch - not MS fast Index
INSTAN~1 - not good
REGIST~1 - not good
jusched - java update
ashDisp - no clue
SBCSTray - no sure
ISUSPM - not sure
Google ToolbarNotifier - ok
ctfmon - ok
Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher - again Acrobat reader
Adobe Reader Speed Launch - again Acrobat Reader
Compaq Connections - some Compaq / HP tool

I'd disable the unknown ones or at the least google 'em - you can always put 'em back if needed

also open Task manager and see if somethings hogging memory, CPU usage?

good luck

[Rocketmech]

You can use this site to search those startup programs , Processlibrary.com

Those "no name" ones , use the file name listed in the Command column .

[jon46y]

Sorry I didn't get back to you about a squared. Yea you can run it in safe mode just make sure you update the definitions. Did it find anything?I would definatly do some research on how to disable realsched from ever running.I was having some problems with the services that run in the background being set so the pc would boot faster and run faster. I just got done setting the background services after setting a restore point. Anyway I used this site to configure them in xp pro. Hre's a link http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm I did a lot of searching before I decided to try his advice. I just did restart the pc. It started a lot faster. There were 34 running proceccess. Thats way down compared to how many were running when I configured the settings according to a program called the ultimate trouble shooter. It's a good program but without having to buy it whatever changes you make with it go back to the way they were before it was installed. But you can use the advice from it and make the changes in a way that didn't involve using the program. Anyway, goodluck. John

[rraehal]

This one is Avast Antivirus Related: ashDisp

[Lgbpop]

WZCSLDR2 - WinZip
pptd40nt - scanner application, usually for Visioneer scanners

I advise getting rid of these from Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs. They're either com links that can mine data (QuickTime, Java, ctfmon, etc.) or carriers (Google Toolbar):

HPwuSchd2
realsched
qttask
jusched
Google ToolbarNotifier
ctfmon
Compaq Connections

All of the above update manually when necessary anyway; you'll get reminders from the parent company as well. All these programs ostensibly do is provide links for updating - they're not even automatic updaters, completely useless. The HP and Compaq ones are especially obnoxious, you always get popups for useless stuff. The others aren't much better.

[smartxtai]

Have you tried fragmenting?

My laptop was booting up and loading very slow so I downloaded Diskeeper and defragged my computer and it also did something to the page and MFT file. My laptop boots up so quickly and runs much quicker now.

I suggest you give Diskeeper a try.